Choices and Consequences

The intervening week went by very slowly for Harry. His lessons with Fabian Gaarder took on a new lease of life as he moved from basic transfiguration and conjuring to a form of magic that Harry had never used before. On top of that, he was having to work very hard to satisfy his tutor.

"I want to start teaching you elemental magic, Harry," Gaarder told him one afternoon. "Your Headmaster believes that you have the ability to utilise this form of magic, perhaps even better than your transfiguration skills."

"What is elemental magic, Professor?" Harry asked, curious about why he hadn't heard of other wizards using it.

Gaarder took a moment to consider his words before replying. "In some ways it looks no different to any other form of magic, but the manner in which you use the elements allows a totally different set of parameters to be applied to the extent of the magic you can perform."

Harry looked a little confused at the explanation, so Gaarder continued.

"Perhaps an example would help. Take, if you will, the spell you would use to create a whirlwind: the spell works by using your magical energy to rush around in a fast, spinning circle, but it is only your magic that maintains that whirlwind - once you end the spell, the whirlwind ends very quickly."

Harry nodded; he hadn't had much success in sustaining his own whirlwind spell.

"By contrast," Gaarder continued, "using elemental magic, you actually manipulate the air itself, and create the whirlwind vortex with the air, rather than with your magic, in effect controlling the intensity of the whirlwind using your magic, without involving your magic in the actual effect itself."

"How does that make any difference?" Harry asked, perplexed at the explanation, and why it wouldn't be easier to use the spell.

"Simply that you are able to concentrate your magic elsewhere, whilst the elemental spell continues," Gaarder explained. "Once you have started the whirlwind, or whatever other effect it is that you wish to create, it frees you up to use other spells, rather than having your magic wrapped up in the one spell.

"Another benefit is that the results don't necessarily depend on the strength of your magic, Mister Potter. While your current conjurations are quite impressive for a sixteen year old, and now last for a good fifteen or twenty minutes, it would take an awful lot of power and a good deal of practice for you to get to the point where the conjured items last for days, weeks or months. Using elemental magic, should you prove adept at it, it would take a very short time for you to create items that are semi-permanent."

"Wow! That would be useful!" Harry exclaimed in surprise, not expecting that he would be able to reach such a stage so quickly.

"Glad though I am for your enthusiasm, you will recall that I said 'should you prove adept at it,'" Gaarder reminded him.

Even with his excitement tempered by that caveat, Harry looked forward to learning this new type of magic. Perhaps this was why Professor Dumbledore made conjuring things look quite so effortless.

At first, his progress was painfully slow. Harry struggled a bit to get a grasp of the concept of manipulating the elemental forces as Professor Gaarder guided him, but his did experience some small successes.

At first they concentrated only on using the air element, and Harry's first task was to use the element to create a chair, rather than conjuring it out of his own magic as he had been practicing for the previous week or so. He didn't seem to have too much trouble with the initial manipulation of the air, but he was finding it very difficult turning that form into a solid object as large as a chair.

Gaarder tried to help him by breaking the task down into smaller chunks, so that Harry could work on creating a smaller and less complex object, and this worked to a certain degree, though Harry wasn't so sure that being able to generate a chair leg, quite literally out of thin air, would prove to be all that useful on its own.

He was having success in making these objects more permanent as the week progressed. A week after his first lesson with the elemental magic, Harry found that the chair legs he'd created were still there. Similarly, he'd made some advances with his normal conjuring: the items he created were lasting a lot longer than they had done initially.

He'd been making good progress in his lessons with John Christopher, but was still most relieved when his birthday finally came around and he had a day free from any other distractions. Even though he enjoyed his workouts with Tonks at the weekends, he wasn't getting much of a break from studying, even if some of that studying was of a physical rather than mental nature, and it was starting to wear him down.

She had taught him a few extra spells that the Aurors used, and that he could practice safely by himself, but even though he was now able to use magic in Privet Drive thanks to Dumbledore's arrangements, he still did most of his chores around the house by hand, few as they were without his relatives there to make a mess.

He had one small bout of pain in his scar during the week, but it had been fairly brief. He hoped that it was Voldemort's anger at Bellatrix Lestrange being unable to find Neville, and hoped too that his fellow Gryffindor was safe from harm.

The weather took a turn for the worse on the day of Harry's birthday; dour grey clouds and persistent drizzle replaced the clear skies and warm sunshine that had characterised the majority of July.

The weather didn't affect Harry's mood too much though - he was keen to get out and meet his friends again. Although he'd spoken to Hermione a few times on the telephone and had corresponded with Ron and Ginny by owl, it wasn't quite the same as seeing them in the flesh. He'd also received one missive from the twins letting him know about some of the product lines they were developing and hoping that he would take some samples back to Hogwarts in September to generate extra business, and he was keen to see what they were and how they worked.

When Tonks knocked on the door to pick Harry up to go to The Burrow, she had clearly had time to go home for a shower and to get changed after work this time, as she looked fresh-faced and had clearly dressed up a little for the evening. Instead of her trademark jeans and 'Weird Sisters' T-shirt, she was wearing a long skirt and a white blouse, and her hair was long and dark rather than any one of the outrageous colours that Harry knew she preferred for everyday use.

"Hey. Happy Birthday, Harry," Tonks greeted him with a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks. I hadn't realised it was formal wear today," Harry said as he invited her into the house. "Hope I'm not too underdressed for the occasion?"

He'd actually dressed fairly smartly himself, in a new pair of trousers and a shirt that Tonks had picked out when they had shopped in London. He hoped that the lousy weather that afternoon didn't make too much of a mess of either of their outfits, though he supposed that Mrs Weasley would try and keep everyone indoors out of the rain anyway.

"You'll do," she sniffed, as she looked him over critically, and took a seat in the living room where he'd led her. "Don't forget we have appearances to maintain."

"You mean to the twins?" he asked.

"Indeed. Hopefully they'll jump to the conclusion that we've been out somewhere for lunch together beforehand," she suggested with a smirk. "We should put them out of their misery at some point today though."

"Make sure Ginny's around then - she wanted to be there to see the reaction on their faces."

Tonks looked oddly at him. "She taking this pretty well," she noted. "I wouldn't fancy this visit much if she thought there really was anything going on between us!"

"What? Scared of a fourteen year-old?" Harry mocked.

"You've seen her Mother's temper, haven't you? Trust me, you don't want to be on the end of Ginny's, it's many times worse."

Harry remembered the way that Ginny had bawled him out the previous Christmas when he had been sulking in his room, feeling sorry for himself at the danger that he potentially posed to his friends, and how she reminded him that he wasn't the only one in the world that had problems.

"I suppose," Harry mollified her, "though I still don't know why she'd be so upset. I mean, I know she's been seeing other guys, so it's not as though she's still got the crush on me she had when I was back in my second year."

"Harry, you really ought to forget about that and start seeing her as the young woman she is, rather than the child that Ron treats her as. Besides, a woman has every right to change her mind whenever she feels like it."

"Eh?"

"Don't worry about it, I was joking, sort of. All I ask is that you don't judge her on the girl she was when she had a crush on you."

"I don't," Harry protested. "I know well enough that she can handle herself - she came with us to the Ministry last month, remember? She also managed to get one over on Malfoy when Umbridge apprehended us."

"Good," Tonks said encouragingly. "Remember that Ginny rather than the one you rescued from the Chamber of Secrets, Harry, and you'll probably draw her wrath a lot less often. Well," she amended, "a lot less than Ron does, anyway."

He looked at her with mouth agape. "I'm sure I never told you it was Ginny that we rescued from the Chamber," he said accusingly.

"I'm not stupid, Harry. I can tell an evasion when I'm told one, and it was clear you were deliberately leaving someone's name out of the story."

"So how did you know it was Ginny then?"

Tonks had the decency to blush.

"Actually, I cheated," she admitted. "I led Dumbledore into believing you'd told me the whole story, and he let it slip. I hadn't realised that she had been the one that actually opened the Chamber in the first place though - that was quite a shock, I have to tell you."

"Yeah, well I don't want to make life any more difficult for her than she's already got it, having been possessed by Voldemort. I know what it's like to be the one that everyone is scared of, or talking about, and it isn't fun. Hey, half the school thought it was me that had opened the Chamber. She doesn't need the extra burden of everyone else knowing that she was duped into it."

Tonks looked at Harry with bright blue eyes glistening as he explained why he had kept it a secret.

"That's really sweet of you, Harry. I'm sure she appreciates it. There aren't many people who would be so considerate when they held information that could be dangerous to someone else like that. Don't get all over-protective on her though - I'm sure she gets enough of that from her brothers."

Harry coloured at the compliment. Despite the fun he'd had with Tonks over the last month or so, he still couldn't get used to her compliments. Of course, it didn't help that she always couched them in terms that made him blush, probably quite deliberately, since she seemed to be tickled that Harry was so easy to embarrass with quite genuine compliments, having received so few from his relatives.

Harry changed the subject. "Aren't we supposed to be going?" he asked quickly.

"Oh, in a moment, I suppose," Tonks said with a shrug, her head turning this way and that as she looked around the room. "This place still looks too tidy, you know."

"Dumbledore made me promise to treat the place properly, as one of the conditions for allowing me to live unsupervised."

"Unsupervised?" Tonks eyebrows shot up and disappeared beneath her hairline. "You've hardly been left alone, Harry. You've got tutors here morning and afternoon every weekday and me here at the weekends. It's not like you exactly have much time to get yourself into trouble."

"I guess it was just Dumbledore trying to guilt me into keeping busy so he didn't have to worry about me," Harry suggested. "Besides, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had already gone, so I've no idea what he had planned if I hadn't agreed to his conditions."

"You'd've been locked up at Grimmauld Place, I bet," Tonks guessed, feeling a little sad at the way Harry's face dropped as she mentioned Sirius's previous residence.

"We've been in and out of there all summer," she continued, trying to take some of the sting out her words. "I'm actually surprised that Dumbledore left you here on your own. He has an awful lot of faith in the blood protection."

"I don't know about that," Harry grumbled. "I get the impression that he just doesn't want us all underfoot, with the Order meeting there all the time. Besides, I told him I'd rather stay here than go to Grimmauld Place."

"Because it reminds you of Sirius?"

"Yeah," he responded glumly.

"He hated it too, you know?" Tonks said gently, to Harry's surprise. "It reminded him of his parents and how nasty they always were, especially after he was sorted into Gryffindor."

"Why did he stay then?" Harry asked. "He could have just left again, surely?"

"He wanted to help the Order."

"But he didn't have to stay there, did he? I mean, when he was on the run after escaping from Hogwarts he stayed somewhere else." Harry vaguely remembered the bedraggled state Sirius had been when they had met him with a basket of food in Hogsmeade and felt a little guilty that he was suggesting Sirius had been better off in the cave there rather than living in a proper house.

"Dumbledore didn't want him out and about, Harry. Once he'd settled into Grimmauld Place, Dumbledore didn't want him roaming around in case he got picked up by the Ministry."

"Why? Because he might be forced to reveal where the Order was staying?" Harry replied angrily.

"I don't know," Tonks admitted with a troubled frown.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you on your birthday," she said, trying to change the subject. "Come on then, let's get moving - the Weasleys await!"

Harry rushed up the stairs to collect his overnight bag, then returned to Tonks in the living room. She held out her hand for Harry to take, which he did, then muttered the password to activate the Portkey she was carrying.

Moments later they appeared in the porch of The Burrow, glad for the cover that the overhanging eaves and covered porchway provided. The rain, which was a lot heavier here, streamed off the guttering onto the driveway behind them.

Harry struggled to maintain his balance, and grabbed tightly onto Tonks's hand as the wave of nausea that hit him as they translocated nearly forced him to his knees as he momentarily overbalanced.

Fortunately, Tonks helped him remain upright by throwing her arm around his shoulder to aid his balance and letting his hand go. As it happened, Harry had just gotten his feet safely under him when the door opened in front of him.

Fred stood in the doorway with an appraising look at the new arrivals, taking in the way that Tonks had her arm across Harry's shoulders. "Folks! The birthday boy's here!" he called out, a wide grin splitting his face.

He ushered the two of them into the kitchen, where George was seated at the table working on a sheet of parchment in front of him, and give Harry a wink and a clap on the shoulder as he passed him in the doorway. George gave them a quick nod in greeting, then returned back to his parchment, deep in thought.

"We managed to convince Angelina and Alicia to manage the shop this afternoon, since it's your birthday," Fred told them by way of explanation for the presence of both twins at The Burrow during normal business hours.

"Actually, they insisted when we told them what it was for, and said to pass on their best wishes," George added without looking up.

Harry smiled. "What are they doing now they've left Hogwarts then?"

"Angelina's trying out for the Chudley Cannons, much to Ron's delight, but Alicia hasn't really found anything yet," Fred said. "They've both been working part-time with Alicia's parents for the time being though, so they aren't getting desperate yet."

"And they help us out at short notice, of course," George put in as he scrawled something at the bottom of his parchment and looked up with a satisfied grin.

Ginny came bounding into the kitchen, followed by Mrs Weasley, who was mildly chastising her for running around the house, but Ginny seemed to be paying little heed to her Mother's words as she skipped across the room and pulled Harry into a quick hug.

"You made it!"

Tonks snorted.

"What? You think we'd get lost by Portkey?" Harry asked, and took a quick step away as Ginny raised a fist.

"I think I can cope with a Portkey, you know," Tonks noted with a chuckle.

Mrs Weasley seemed to notice Tonks for the first time, and particularly her arm still draped across Harry's shoulders. Her face went through several fleeting contortions before she raised her eyebrows in question.

"Is there something that the two of you want to tell us?" she asked, apparently expecting an explanation.

Harry weathered her gaze for a few moments, then took a decided interest in the floor in front of him. He cleared his throat.

"Actually, yes there is." He turned to face Tonks and winked at her where no one could see. He leaned in and kissed her gently on the cheek, then moved away, and led her to a seat at the table, pulling out a chair for her.

Certain now that he'd got the attention of the whole room, since even George had looked up from his paperwork in interest, he gently placed a hand on Tonks's shoulder.

"Tonks and I," he began, "we're, well we're ... um ... how can I put this ... we're having a lot of fun ... yeah ... a lot of fun."

Mrs Weasley didn't know whether to look outraged at the implication that she had immediately leaped to, which of course was exactly what Harry had intended, or to be pleased that Harry was showing a "healthy" interest in someone. Her eyes flickered from Harry to Tonks, back to Harry, to Ginny and back to Tonks once again, and she cleared her throat uncomfortably as the silent room watched her, waiting for her reaction.

Ginny was having a hard job trying to control her laughter, though, and had covered her mouth with a hand to try and hide her expression.

Fred and George's eyes opened even wider, but Tonks obviously couldn't hold out any longer and let them all in on the secret.

"Yeah, we've been having a lot of fun ... winding you two up that we're actually dating!" she said, turning to the twins, the laughter bursting out as she barely completed the sentence. Ginny burst into a huge an unexpected guffaw, and Mrs Weasley's face turned bright pink, then relaxed into a gentle smile.

Fred and George looked gobsmacked. "What?" they exploded in unison. "You mean you were having us on, all along?"

Harry nodded. "Even when you came up to the shop?" He nodded again, enjoying their disbelief.

"Damn!"

"Looks like our partner has exactly what it takes!"

The room dissolved into quiet laughter while everyone relaxed at the stunt that Harry and Tonks had pulled.

"Anyway, Happy Birthday Harry," Mrs Weasley said, pulling him into a hug, quickly followed by Ginny for a second time, whose eyes were full of sparkle, still lit with the mirth from a few moments before.

"That was excellent, Harry," she whispered into his ear, sending all sorts of tingling sensations through Harry's body. "You'll have to watch out now though, they'll be after you for the rest of the day," she warned him a little more loudly.

"There will be no pranks to be played on Harry on his birthday!" Mrs Weasley insisted to the twins, almost as though she had heard Ginny's whisper. Fred and George adopted contrite expressions that looked completely out of place, not to mention insincere. "And what's this about being a partner?"

"You didn't tell her?" Harry asked.

The twins looked at each other and shook their heads. "We were in enough trouble for dropping out of school," Fred noted. "We weren't going to get anyone else in trouble too."

"Harry?" Mrs Weasley enquired.

He looked at the twins for support, but they simply shrugged. It was up to him to confess, he supposed.

"I gave Fred and George the money I won in the Tri-wizard Tournament last year," he admitted finally.

"But that was a thousand Galleons!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed. "How can you just give away that sort of money?"

Harry shrugged.

"Is Harry this 'mystery investor' you two have been on about the past twelve months?" she asked, rounding on the twins.

"Yes, Mum," they replied together in a singsong tone.

"Thank heavens for that!" she said in relief, which made the twins blink owlishly at each other. "I thought you'd got yourself involved with someone dubious like that Ludo Bagman fellow, or one of Mundungus Fletcher's dodgy friends, the way you were keeping it so hush-hush. Harry, what on earth possessed you to give away so much money?"

"You're not mad at me?"

"No, of course not," she assured him. "I don't know what you're doing giving away such a large sum though!"

"I didn't really feel like I'd earned it fairly, to be honest. After what happened with Voldemort coming back I just couldn't face taking the prize money for myself, and Cedric's parents wouldn't take it.

"These two needed it to get their shop going, and I'm sure the world will be a much more fun place for it."

Mrs Weasley shook her head in astonishment. "But a thousand Galleons?"

"He's not short of money, Molly," Tonks spoke up from her seat. "I went to Gringotts with him and they treat him like a preferential customer. Did you read the piece in the Prophet about us?"

Mrs Weasley acknowledged that she'd read it, though she did a quick double-take as she realised that Tonks had been the mystery woman that the paper were all worked up about. The twins hadn't mentioned that he'd visited, nor the identity of his companion, and they had to wait a few moments while she reprimanded them for not telling her.

"Harry spent nearly a thousand Galleons that day, all in all," Tonks interrupted after a few minutes, getting back to the question at hand. "What James and Lily left him was supposed to last until he was seventeen and reached his majority.

"Since he didn't make any withdrawals until he went to Hogwarts, after living with those Dursleys most of his life, he's got a fair amount of that money left, not to mention the interest that had built up on it. We had to make a small dent in it to get some of the things he should have been provided with many years before: new clothes, a few luxuries, and a little fun, but which the Dursleys had never bothered with."

"We?" Mrs Weasley asked, with a dubious expression.

Tonks looked a little uncomfortable at providing a response to that, so Harry helped her out. "Tonks helped me pick out almost a whole wardrobe to replace the rubbish that I'd had handed down from Dudley." He did a quick turn, showing off his new clothes. "I also insisted on getting a little something for Tonks as well, for all her help," he added with understatement.

"You mean that article in the Prophet was right about you using a Gringotts account quill to make some large purchases in Madam Malkin's?"

"Well, yes, though they exaggerated how much I spent."

Mrs Weasley looked as though she was struggling to take all this in, and she looked a little disconcertedly at Tonks, but rounded on the twins instead. "I hope you're grateful for Harry's faith in you?"

"Of course," George responded. "We've made him a partner in the company."

"Good," his mother said, looking a little more satisfied at the arrangement. "I hope it all works out. I still think you should have waited until you'd got your NEWTs and worked at a proper job for a while, but I'm glad that you're happy doing your shop and you've at least got a sympathetic financial backer," she added with a grateful glance at Harry.

"Thanks Mum, we appreciate it," George said, getting up from the table to give Mrs Weasley a hug, followed by his brother.

"Hey where's Ron? And I thought Hermione was going to be here too," Harry asked, suddenly aware that his two best friends weren't there at all.

He caught a nervous glance between Mrs Weasley and Ginny.

"They had a bit of an argument," Ginny noted.

Harry turned to the youngest Weasley, hoping for a fuller explanation. "You mean a bigger argument than normal?"

The twins and Tonks sniggered at Harry's comment, but were quelled by an annoyed look from Mrs Weasley.

"A different argument," Ginny told him, somewhat obliquely. Further pressing only yielded that Ron was a bit unhappy with Harry as well, though no one seemed to want to explain why, or at least not with Mrs Weasley in the room.

"I'll just go up and say hello to Ron then, shall I?" he asked. "Ginny, will you get Hermione to come down?"

Ginny agreed and they left the kitchen together, Harry toting his overnight bag as well as they headed up the stairs. Ginny explained that Harry had been put in Percy's old room for the night, but Hermione was still sharing with Ginny.

Ron had insisted that Harry would prefer to share with him, but Mrs Weasley had told him that since Harry was used to his own room at home, he could have his own room at The Burrow since they had room.

Apparently, Percy had been in contact with Mr Weasley at work, and had offered some form of apology, so the tension in the family at his name had lessened a little. They weren't quite ready to forgive him for the way he'd treated them over the past year, but at least there was some hope of reconciliation in the air.

Harry dropped his bag off in Percy's room and followed Ginny up the stairs to find Ron. He looked as though he had been sulking, and it took the two of them a few minutes to persuade him to go back downstairs to the kitchen with Harry, while Ginny tried to convince Hermione to do the same.

When Harry and Ron returned to the kitchen they found Mrs Weasley busying herself with preparations for dinner, and the twins still going over their accounts. Tonks was relaxing in a comfy chair in the living room with a butterbeer, not having to worry so much about Harry's safety here at The Burrow.

Ginny returned on her own though, signalling Harry to come out of the room to talk to her.

"She wants to talk to you before she comes down, Harry. Don't go getting upset with Ron, whatever she tells you, just understand that the two of them need to work it out between them - it's a matter of trust."

Harry had no idea what Ginny was on about, so just nodded and headed back up the stairs to Ginny's room, which was on the same landing as Percy's. He knocked tentatively on the door, and was rewarded by a glum-sounding Hermione inviting him in.

Hermione was sat on the side of Ginny's bed, with a camp bed set out in front of her. There didn't really seem to be much room in here for two beds, and Harry felt a little guilty that he'd been given a room of his own when he could have shared with Ron. More obviously though, Hermione looked as though she had been crying recently, her eyes red-rimmed and her face blotchy. He sat down on the bed next to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked cautiously. "You don't normally get so upset at an argument with Ron."

"I know. I should be used to his insensitive nature. This is a bit different though."

"Go on."

Hermione took a handkerchief from her pocket and blew her nose noisily, which raised a chuckle from both of them.

"I was telling Ron about how we looked at the memory of Voldemort's return in your Pensieve," she began, looking up to see Harry nodding encouragingly for her to continue. "At first he was a little jealous that you had been allowed to stay when he and Ginny had needed to go home, but he seemed to get over that fairly quickly.

"Anyway, I told him how awful it must have been for you, and he was all sympathetic, but when I started talking about how nice you'd been about it, and how you'd looked after me and comforted me, he started getting all uptight."

Harry winced. He was used to Ron being a little jealous of his money, his possessions and the attention he got from being the 'Boy-who-Lived'. After all, they'd had a huge falling out during the Tri-wizard Tournament when Ron had accused Harry of entering himself for the glory of it all, and not letting him in on the secret.

This was a little bit different though. He wasn't used to them arguing about their relationships with him.

Hermione giggled a little at Harry's expression, bringing a little more life to her face. "I can see you're one step ahead of me already," she remarked, giggling a little more at the thought. "Well you're right. He basically accused me of sleeping with you behind his back."

"I assume you mean 'sleeping' as a euphemistic term, rather than literally, seeing as if we were talking literally, it would be true," Harry noted, provoking another little giggle from his friend. This unsettled him slightly. He wasn't used to a Hermione that giggled and acted all girly, but then he supposed that she put up with his and Ron's company for long enough that she was entitled to a few girly moments. They just wouldn't normally be while he was in her company.

"Well, if you want to get pedantic, I was sleeping on you. You weren't asleep, so we weren't sleeping together," she pointed out in a more characteristic tone.

"Anyway, he started asking questions about how long you and I had been sneaking around behind his back, and he wouldn't believe that we hadn't done anything.

"Even when Ginny pointed out what rotten company you'd been last year and how unlikely it was that you'd have been in the mood for sneaking around and snogging, he just started off on a rant about how he obviously couldn't trust us." Hermione was starting to get a bit worked up again, and her explanation was beginning to become something of a rant. "I mean, exactly where does he get off, making assumptions like that, let alone whether it's any of his business - it was like thought he was my father and had a say in who I was going out with!"

"More like he's assuming that he gets first refusal, Hermione," Harry pointed out. "Remember how annoyed he got about Viktor Krum, not to mention how he reacted about Ginny going out with Michael Corner? He's just jealous, but he doesn't have the guts to ask you out, and he assumes that everyone else is getting what he wants."

"Well he should damn well butt out!"

Harry snorted at Hermione's vehemence. "I promised Ginny that I wouldn't get mad with Ron, whatever the problem was, and I intend to stick to that. If he's still being a git about this when we get back to school, we'll take another look at it then, but I can see why you're upset." He gave a theatrical sigh. "All this on my birthday, eh?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Harry. With all this happening I'd totally forgotten it's your birthday," she said, turning to give him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Careful now. That's what got you into this mess, remember?" Harry joked, and had to react quickly to defend himself from the playful slap that Hermione aimed in his direction.

"Come on. Come downstairs," Harry wheedled with a smile. "Join the party."

"Okay. Just let me wash my face and straighten up a bit, and I'll be down in a few minutes."

Harry got up, pulling Hermione to her feet and giving her a quick hug, then headed back downstairs, finding that almost everyone had adjourned to the living room to take advantage of the more comfortable surroundings, and to draw on the supplies of butterbeer that Mrs Weasley had laid on for the evening.

He caught Ginny's eye, across the room where she sat with Tonks, engaged in an animated discussion about Auror training, and nodded with a smile to let her know that his mission had been successful.

He pulled up a seat next to Ron, Fred and George, who were talking about how poor Kirke and Sloper had been as beaters the previous year and who they thought might be better choices for the forthcoming year.

"Have you been made Quidditch Captain then, Ron?" Harry asked, listening to Ron's insistence that the team needed two new Beaters. "You didn't mention it in your letter."

"Nah, I'm just planning ahead," Ron responded. "Who do you suppose McGonagall will make Captain this year?"

Any further speculation about Quidditch was forestalled though, as the door to the kitchen opened and two more Weasley heads entered the room.

"Bill! Charlie!" Ginny squealed in delight, immediately jumping to her feet to greet her two eldest brothers with a hug. "Mum didn't say you were coming home tonight!"

"It was supposed to be a surprise," Bill noted, dropping a kiss on the top of Ginny's head, then attempting to ruffle her hair, which was met with a hand batting him away. "Which apparently it was!"

The two new arrivals worked their way around their family, and greeted Harry with enthusiasm. Charlie and Tonks spent a few minutes eyeing each other up with obvious mutual interest, which made Harry a little jealous, though he forced those feelings down pretty quickly; Tonks had made it very clear that though she enjoyed flirting with him she wouldn't even consider him as a proper boyfriend.

Eventually Hermione slipped tentatively into the room, immediately picking out where Ginny was sat as a safe option and sliding into a chair next to her to talk to her quietly.

Harry had no doubt that they were talking about Ron and Hermione's estrangement, but he didn't make any immediate effort to try and join them, just smiling encouragingly at Hermione when he caught her eye.

Ron had also noticed Hermione's entrance, and his face flushed red as Harry watched him he flicked his eyes towards Harry very briefly.

Harry hoped that whatever issues Ron had they could be contained until after everyone had left, or at least until he wasn't likely to blow up in front of the whole family, though he suspected that he had already done so in front of Mrs Weasley, the twins and Ginny at least once.

He settled down soon enough though, and was quickly distracted by another new arrival. Popping his head through the door briefly to say hello to the gathered throng, Mr Weasley waved to Harry and called out a quick 'Happy Birthday' to him before taking Tonks off to one side for a quick word and then disappearing back into the kitchen.

Harry enjoyed the afternoon in the company of his friends. They were the closest he had to a family. Ron managed to convince him into playing a couple of games of chess, in which he beat Harry easily before Harry made way for Bill to take his seat as protagonist.

"Should be a bit more of a challenge," Ron noted, with a gleam of anticipation in his eye.

"Oh?" Harry asked as he moved aside.

"Bill taught me how to play."

Bill sat down opposite Ron and started setting the pieces up. "I think I taught him too well, you know. He can beat me now."

"Much too well," Harry snorted. "No one in Gryffindor can even give him much of a game these days."

"Hey you weren't complaining when it helped you save the Philosopher's Stone," Ron countered, his temper rising again somewhat, but Bill attracted his attention back to the game before it could become an issue between them.

Harry moved away from the chess set, and was accosted by Ginny, who pulled him over to where she and Hermione were sitting.

"We're still talking about my git of a brother," Ginny warned him.

"I suggested to let him cool off a bit," he shrugged. "You know what he's like when he gets jealous."

"That's no excuse though," Ginny argued. "None of the rest of us are getting all uppity just because you got to spend the night at Hermione's," she added archly.

"Hey! Nothing happened!" Harry protested quietly, which drew a strange look from Hermione. "What?"

"You don't have to be quite so defensive about it though, Harry," she said, looking at him strangely. "Though on second thoughts, maybe with Ron it's actually a good idea."

Harry looked from one girl to the other and shook his head.

"I don't understand."

"We know," they chorused, which made the room go quiet for a moment as everyone turned round to see what they were talking about.

Ginny waved them back to what they had been doing and waited for the noise level to increase before she continued. They talked quietly about the problem with Ron for a while longer before a strange scene across the room caught Harry's attention, and he alerted the two girls to it.

Fred appeared to be trying to convince Charlie and Tonks that he was a purveyor of fine goods (which looked suspiciously like Canary Creams to Harry's eye) while George sneaked up on them from behind with some sort of attachment.

"What are you two up to?" Ginny asked George as he made his way back over to them, trying very hard to look innocent, but failing completely.

"It's a listening charm," George explained. "It works a bit like the Extendable Ears, but doesn't require the wires that the Ears do. It's still a prototype, but hey, who better to try it out on than our big brother and our favourite Auror?"

"You might not want to listen too closely to it later on, then," Harry suggested with a grimace.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Because from the way those two are getting on, you might hear some things that you'd prefer not to," Ginny noted, crinkling her nose up at the thought. "Especially if they leave together tonight."

"Eurgh! We hadn't thought of that!" George admitted, and quickly turned away to try and find his twin, presumably for an urgent "business meeting" about the issue that had just been raised.

A few minutes later, Mrs Weasley called them all into the kitchen to sit down for dinner. This was what Harry had always missed: sitting down to meals with his family and feeling as though it was normal, rather than being subjected to all sorts of verbal abuse from his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, or being the centre attention as so often seemed to be the case in the Great Hall.

Just as everyone started to settle down into their places, there was a 'whoosh' from the fireplace and one final guest arrived in the Weasleys' kitchen. The middle-aged man dusted himself down and looked around to see who was present.

"Professor Lupin!" Harry exclaimed, half-rising from his seat.

Remus Lupin chucked at the greeting. "I'm sure I must have told you by now that you can drop the 'Professor' business, Harry. Just call me Remus please, everyone," he said, including the whole room in the request.

Mrs Weasley went over to him and fussed over him for a moment before allowing the former Defence teacher to take his seat at the table. She began to serve up and they enjoyed a rather raucous meal, with the twins already riling Charlie about Tonks and the number of people at the table making for a chaotic affair. Harry really enjoyed the home-made cottage pie that Mrs Weasley served up, and managed to put away two large helpings of rhubarb crumble for dessert, settling back with the warm and soporific feeling of a full stomach and pleasant company.

The only moment that spoiled it was another of Ron's ill-timed remarks. Clearly he wasn't happy with the attention that Harry was getting and at one point blatantly tried to turn the conversation to his 'magnificent display in the final Quidditch match of the season' which jarred slightly with the topics that were being discussed at the time. He got a warning glance from Mrs Weasley though, and took the warning seriously enough to rejoin a conversation that Tonks was having with Remus.

Fortunately, Ron and Hermione were separated pretty naturally at the table, which contributed to a more convivial atmosphere. Neither had yet spoken to the other since Harry had arrived, and he hoped that the tension between them wouldn't spill over and ruin the evening.

After everyone had finished and was sipping at their coffee, Mr Weasley stood up and went out of the room for a moment, returning with a large cardboard box. As he brought it closer to the table, Harry could see that it was filled with a number of brightly wrapped packages and suddenly realised that they must be for him.

Mr Weasley called for quiet then spoke briefly. "I know that the Muggles you live with don't treat you very well, and Ron's told me the sort of presents they've sent you for Christmas in the past. These are for you, Harry, from all of us."

Harry sat stock still for a moment at Mr Weasley's words.

"Really," he murmured, "you shouldn't have."

"Well we did, so get down there and start opening them," Fred encouraged with a shove to his shoulder.

Harry stepped down from the table and looked into the box, pulling out a package with lurid green wrapping and a scaly motif.

"This can only be from you two, right?" he said, looking from Fred to George. The twins nodded back eagerly.

He carefully pulled the wrapping paper off the square-ish box, and pulled out three items, looking quizzically at Fred and George, who motioned him to take a look.

The topmost item was a scroll of thick parchment. Harry rolled down the scroll and read it in amazement. "You didn't have to do that, guys."

"Actually we did. We had to make it official with Gringotts, or they wouldn't let us set up a proper business account," Fred admitted.

"Yeah. We went to see them about changing the account to a business one rather than just in our names, and they insisted on knowing who our investor was," George took up the story. "Turns out your name carries quite a bit of weight, even with the goblins; they were most pleased to help us out once we'd filed this with them."

"What does it say, Harry?" Hermione asked quietly from his right hand side.

He held it out to her to take from him, and she read it out to the whole room.

"This scroll certifies that Harry James Potter, as indicated by the signature below, is a part-owner in the business 'Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes' in a proportion of one fifth, this share being non-transferable other than by final will and testament," she read.

"You just need to sign the bottom, Harry," Fred advised, "preferably with your account quill if you've got it with you."

Harry wasn't about to leave his Gringotts account quill lying around at Privet Drive, and quickly nipped up the stairs to get it out of his overnight bag, returning quickly and signing the bottom of the scroll with a flourish. One of the stylised goblins on the Gringotts parchment header looked down at the signature and said "Thank you", before returning to its previous inanimate form. Harry nearly dropped the parchment in surprise.

"I want to go shopping with you," Ginny said mischievously, with her eye on the quill. "I don't care what the Prophet reckons, I'm sure I could do some serious damage to your account!"

"Ginny!" her mother admonished. "Don't be so rude!"

"It's okay, Mrs Weasley, I know she was only joking," he said to mollify his host, though he could clearly see Ginny's face lifting into an expression of challenge at his comment and he winked at her to prevent her saying anything further that might upset her Mother.

"So what else is in there, Harry?" Ron asked curiously.

Harry picked up the next item, which was an unremarkable cardboard box. He raised the lid cautiously, not sure if the twins had been sworn to good behaviour regarding their present to him and knowing that if they hadn't his caution was well justified.

"It's perfectly safe," George assured him, though he'd shared an amused look with his twin at Harry's tentative approach to the box.

Deciding to take a risk, Harry lifted the lid of the box, but at the same time backed away from it, in case there were any unpleasant surprises. Not noticing anything to worry about he took a quick peek into it, and saw a wide range of some of the smaller items that graced the shelves of the twins' shop.

"We thought, seeing as you are a partner in the company, you might not be averse to providing us with some marketing," Fred suggested. "Though of course, should any prefects happen to hear about any rule breaking involving our products, we would of course deny any knowledge of a supply entering Hogwarts through you," he added with a sly glance at Ron and then Hermione.

Mrs Weasley looked aghast at the suggestion, but seeing the smile playing on Harry's lips, decided not to make a fuss about it. After all, if that was how two of her sons were making their living, why should she stand in their way. They weren't doing anything illegal, after all.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hermione smirked, blatantly looking away from Harry's present. "I seem to have gone temporarily deaf and blind, or something."

The twins looked at each other and grins spread across their faces as an idea hit them simultaneously.

"I don't suppose we could supply you-," George began hopefully, but was cut off quickly.

"I don't think so, George," Hermione declined. "I'd rather not have to explain that to Professor McGonagall, if you don't mind."

"Ah well, it was just a thought. There's something else there too, Harry. We couldn't just give you products you are basically entitled to anyway for your birthday. This is from Remus as well, though."

Harry put the box of joke items to one side and considered the third item that had come out of the twins' package. It was a smallish yet fairly thick book, with a heavily creased plain black cover. At first glance it appeared to be a blank journal. Remembering how the Marauders' map worked, Harry suspected that there was more to it than that, and with that in mind, Harry tapped the book with his wand saying the words "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good". He was instantly gratified when the book began filling up with words.

Now that the magic had been activated, a legend appeared on the front cover as well, indicating that the book was entitled 'A guide to mischief at Hogwarts'. Harry looked up at Remus, his eyes searching the werewolf's for an answer.

"Let's just say there's more than meets the eye at Hogwarts, Harry," Remus told him. "Albus would be most displeased to know that you have your hands on this book, since it provides some interesting details about how the Headmaster always seems to know what's going on in the school, but basically, it's a guide to how the castle's magic works and how to control it."

"It's very interesting, Harry," Fred told him with a wink that indicated there was a lot more to the book than Remus had explained, probably out of deference to the others present.

"It's a very old book that Fred, George and I have been working on for a year or so, adding some bits from my old Hogwarts days and refining it to the present day with the twins' aid," Remus added to Harry quietly. "They spent a long time pulling together the information that I provided them, which is why I suggested they include it in their parcel.

"They garnered a lot of information from books dating back to the Founders' era. In fact, most of the best information came from one text that was reputed to have been written by Godric Gryffindor himself, although the copy we found had no accredited author."

Harry stared at the small book with a little awe.

'Written by Gryffindor himself,' he thought. 'Imagine how much insight it could provide into the castle.'

"We wish we'd had something like this when we were younger, Harry," George said with a smile. "There's an awful lot of stuff that we could have used in our pranks."

"Yeah! Like how to control the staircases so that the Slytherins couldn't get to class!" Fred enthused.

"Or to enchant the suits of armour to follow Filch around all day!"

The twins went off into a lengthy list of all the pranks they could have played if they'd had a better idea of how the castle's magic worked, which was only curtailed when Mrs Weasley interrupted them, pointing out that everyone was keen for Harry to open the rest of his presents. Harry nodded, wondering what sort of secrets the book held, but was drawn back to the here and now by the attention that was focused on him around the table as the Weasleys and guests waited for him.

"Thanks very much guys. That's really cool," Harry smiled, though he was unsure when he would get a chance to read through the book, given the number of other things he needed to read before the start of term and the hours that he was spending with his training.

Ron had bought him Chocolate Frogs and a range of sweets that he'd owl-ordered from Honeydukes, which Harry put to one side. Given that he'd just eaten dinner, Mrs Weasley would have been most upset if he'd stared gorging on sweets - she'd think he hadn't enjoyed the meal.

A package from Tonks contained a black silk shirt, which felt really nice to the touch. She joked with him about how good it felt on the skin, though when Harry made a face at her for the teasing, she did point out that she could have bought him silk boxer shorts instead, and then he'd have been really embarrassed.

The look on his face was enough to send Bill, Charlie, the twins and Tonks into gales of laughter, particularly when Tonks asked through her giggles what they all would have thought if she and Harry had still been pretending to be dating.

Mr Weasley carefully hid the grin on his face when he saw that his wife wasn't particularly amused by the tone of the conversation, and before she could start to lecture Harry on appropriate behaviour for a young man, he suggested that he move on and open another gift.

Bill and Charlie had clubbed together for a pair of dragonhide boots, which Charlie reassured them weren't from Norbert, much to Hermione's distasteful expression, while Mrs Weasley's gift was another hand-stitched jumper, this time in blue, which made Harry smile as he remembered his first Christmas jumper from her, nearly five years earlier.

A small box from Hermione contained a medallion on a chain. It was made from silver and was circular and extremely thin, with a diameter about the same as a Muggle two pound coin. The centre of the medallion was slightly raised, and had a small depiction of a dragon. The outer section of it was smooth, though it appeared as though there was space for some wording.

Harry raised his gaze to Hermione in question. "Thanks," he said quietly. "That's really nice - I suspect it does something though?

Hermione nodded eagerly. "I used a Protean Charm on it, Harry, but it's modified somewhat. If you place the chain around your neck and put your hand on the medallion, you can make whatever wording you want appear on it - up to about four words," she explained.

Harry nodded in understanding, but Hermione hadn't finished.

"It works like the Galleons we used for the DA," she continued. "When you change the wording, the twin to it warms, and the new wording appears there as well."

"The twin to it?" he asked.

Hermione pulled the collar of her blouse slightly to one side to reveal a chain of her own, sliding her hand down to pull out the amulet it was attached to.

"It only works one way though. I haven't figured out a way to make it work both ways yet," she added.

Harry smiled, and nodded his thanks. "Now I can let you know what's happening if I get myself into trouble!"

"Exactly. If we can't be there with you to help, at least you can stay in touch with us."

Everyone around the table seemed to be pleased with Hermione's gift, though Ron was giving him a strange stare. Harry wasn't sure whether that was because he didn't have one too and felt Hermione should have provided one for each of them, or if he was merely annoyed that he hadn't thought of such a useful present.

He ignored it for the time being, and turned instead to the final present, from Ginny.

Again the box was quite small, though this one seemed a little heavier than Hermione's present. As he pulled the paper off and opened the lid, he could feel the flutter of wings, and the air passing between his fingers.

The object jumped up and out of Harry's hand, hovering immediately above the packaging, before slowly sinking back down and settling back into the box, the wings finally stilling as it returned to its place.

"It's a practice Snitch, Harry," Ginny told him. "It's not very intelligent like the real thing, but you can set it to fly for a certain amount of time before it returns to its box, so in principle, you should never lose it."

Harry's mind reeled as he wrapped his fingers around the Snitch. Suddenly he was back in Snape's office having an Occlumency lesson and looking into his Pensieve. The image of his father catching and releasing the Snitch lingered before him, along with the way he had treated the young Severus Snape, humiliating him in front of the entire fifth year.

"Wow! That's cool! Where did you get that, Ginny?" Ron asked with excitement.

Fred and George shared a glance. "I suspect Ginny's been sucking up to Madam Hooch," Fred proffered. "She always used to have a spare for practicing with."

Ginny coloured slightly. "Do you mind?" she retorted towards the twins. "I worked damned hard for that!"

"Are you okay, Harry?" Hermione asked, suddenly noticing his pallor and lack of reaction to Ginny's present.

He started out of his reverie, forcing a smile onto his face.

"It's great Ginny," Harry said quickly. "I don't mind how you got it, to be honest." He shrugged off the haunting reminder of his Father's attitude at school and turned to the happy smiling faces around the room.

"Thank you, all of you," he acknowledged them. "It's been really great."